YYC ICE CREAM CRAWL

At the beginning of the summer I got this crazy idea to do a family ice cream crawl. I thought my husband was going to say I was nuts (especially since I’m lactose intolerant) but instead he was completely on board. Next thing I knew we were making a list of all the ice cream places we knew of and searching Google Maps to find the ones we didn’t.

It was a really fun summer activity that I would highly recommend! Not only did we get to eat a lot of yummy ice cream but our ice cream trips made for great family memories too! Here’s a list of the ones we hit up this summer and a few that are on our list for next year!

Village Ice Cream in Britannia – we’re big Village fans and we love their shop in Britannia because of it’s location. After you get your ice cream you can head about a block West and you’ll come to a beautiful little park that over looks Sandy Beach. I love an ice cream shop that comes with an added bonus of a little side excursion! It makes for an extra special trip!

Village offers many different flavours of ice cream including one of my favs, Earl Grey. They also have delicious lactose free options! You can visit Village’s website to see a full list of flavours and for their locations and hours. Pssst – they’re open year round! http://www.villageicecream.com

Anne’s Café – this little ice cream shop is the cutest! We like to park at Sikome Lake and take a short 20 minute walk North to Annie’s which is located right next door to Bow Valley Ranch. You can’t beat the location for beauty and Annie’s offers up ice cream, baked goods and gourmet coffee’s! Our kids love sitting at the giant wood tables and then running around the interpretive garden next door.

Annies is open till 6:00pm on weeknights and 7:00pm on weekends and they’re seasonal so you’ll want to go soon before they close for winter! Visit their website for more details: www.bvrrestaurants.com

Big Dipper Ice Cream- this was one of our google map finds! It’s located in Okotoks and since we live in the deep SE we thought we’d check it out. It’s now one of our favs! It’s this cute little house situated on a residential street. The ice cream flavours are listed in the front window and the front door is the ordering counter. It’s family run and is open from roughly April – May each year. They carry around 40 flavours of ice cream (as well as lactose free sorbets) including Foothills Creamery, Fiasco Gelato and Evelyns Memory Lane brands. This is where my addiction to Pisatchio ice cream began! Big Dipper is well worth the drive out to Okotoks which is actually closer for use SE and SW folks than heading inner city so go check them out soon! www.bigdipper.ca

Lics (aka Leavitt’s Ice Cream Shop) – this cute little ice cream shop is located in the NW off of 3rd Ave and is full of nostalgic appeal. The ice cream is all out on display and my kids loved looking at all the flavour options, I thought there heads were going to explode! Lics has roughly 50 flavours of ice cream as well as frozen yogurt, sugar free varieties, milk shakes, sundaes, the list goes!

Lics is open year round, which is awesome, but with limited hours starting in September. Check out their website for more info, www.lics.ca

My Favourite Ice Cream Shop – (that’s actually the name) can be found in Marda Loop. It has a nostalgic soda shop feel which we love but it also comes with the added bonus of a fun Ice Cream mural on the side of the building for taking fun pics and a huge park, complete with playground, across the street. My Favourite Ice Cream Shop has over 72 flavours of hard ice cream as well as sundae’s, milkshakes, floats, etc.

My Favourite Ice Cream Shop actually has 2 locations, one in Mardo Loop and one in Wentworth and they’re open year round! Also for those of you who are musically inclined, according to the website, if you play the piano for at least 10 minutes at their Marda Loop location you get a free ice cream! http://myfavoriteicecream.com

Amato Gelato – this fun Italian ice cream shop is a must. I love that it has an indoor seating area not to mention 72 flavours of Gelato!! I had Coconut and Pistachio and they were amazing! My sons Bubblegum Gelato was bright pink and my daughter can’t stop talking about the Mint Chocolate Chip. The waffle cones are delicious and on the skinny side so with a double scoop piled high it looks more like a quadruple scoop!

Amato Gelato is located on Kensington Road in the NW and it’s open year round. If you go in the summer I highly recommend spending the morning at Riley Park and then getting Gelato for lunch! http://www.amatogelatocalgary.com

Moo Country Ice Cream – this fun ice cream trailer is located beside the wadding pool at Eau Claire Market downtown. Moo is the only location where we had flavoured soft serve! The ice cream comes out looking like vanilla but with the edges a different colour depending on flavour. Moo also offers a huge variety of other treats including, frozen ice cream, screamers and soda floats. We love getting some ice cream from Moo’s and then heading to Prince’s Island Park or down to the Peace Bridge. Makes for a fun day downtown!

Jolly Good Candy Shop – I had no idea this cute little place in McKenzie Towne even had ice cream till this year. They have 16 flavours of Nestle hard ice cream as well as my absolute fav, swirl soft serve! For those of us in the deep south this is a fun place to hit up for a quick treat. Peruse the aisles of fun candies, pops and products you can’t find anywhere else and then grab yourself an ice cream to go!

Nice Cream – well this place is just darn right fun! Ice Cream made right before your eyes with one of their delicious flavours and some liquid nitrogen. Our kids loved watching the “smoke” come out of the line of mixers on the counter! You can choose from 7 flavours including one non-dairy and you can also add on toppings to make it extra special! Also the waffle cones at Nice Cream are amazing! So light and thin and delicious! I could eat one just on it’s own!

Nice Cream is located on 37th St in the SW. It has a great atmosphere including an indoor seating area and it’s open daily! For more info check out their site, http://thenicecream.com

There you have it, our summer ice cream crawl! I will admit that we didn’t make it to every shop on our list but we did our best. We still want to hit up, Fiasco Gelato, Inglewood Drive Inn, Old School Bus in Canmore, MacKays Ice Cream in Cochrane, Fanny May Fine Chocolates (who carries MacKays), The Calgary Zoo (best soft serve ever!), Made by Marcus and I’m sure there are a few others I’m forgetting. I feel an Ice Cream Crawl 2017 coming on!

For now you have 9 amazing ice cream shops to check out and I’m delighted to say that most are open year round so no excuses! Start your own ice cream crawl and tag me on Instagram so I can live vicariously through you please! @craftedeveryday

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Lindy is a stationery designer in Calgary, Alberta. Along with running her Etsy shop she is also the co-captain of the Etsy Calgary: Made in Canada Team and is one of the organizers of the annual Etsy: Made in Canada market. When she’s not busy with Etsy you can find her running around after her three kids and dreaming about ice cream!